The Change
by Kris For President
Summary: Bella, living in the hell that is her stepfathers home has always found comfort in her best friend Edward and his family. After a terrible situation where Bella believes Edward to be dead she finds that somehow, he's come back... and he's changed.
1. Chapter 1

2003

The day had gone quiet with the very sudden and instant drop of the sun that had left the sky no time to stain purple and pink and instead convert directly to black. It was a still winter night, the crisp kind that made fingers turn blue and lips chalk white if you weren't wrapped up properly. Snow fell with the ease of butter gliding across a sizzling pan and landed so heavily that shoveling would take hours the next morning. In the midst of this weather beneath a canopy of bone-white branches, Bella Swan crouched, shivering.

It had been hours but still she refused to turn back. Not when that monster was prowling the hallways awake, mutinously trudging back and forth between her empty bedroom and the stairwell no doubt drunk and mindless. She'd warned herself that she should stay, but what was a warning in comparison to a six foot five drinker who was angrier than hell? No way was she going to stick around and now there was no way she was turning back. The wind howled above her and around her. It was still better. Anything was better than Ted when he was intoxicated.

He liked to embarrass her. Anything to get a quick laugh out of his clumsy daughter, the one whose anger was so easily provoked as his own. Ted liked to push her around because he liked to have power even more so than he liked to drink. He'd been let go from his job five years ago and ever since had taken it upon himself to cripple everything he came in contact with. He lusted for control.

And so Bella crouched, her hands stuffed into her pockets and her skin going the kind of numb that surpassed little feeling and entered the strange state of pain. The snow fell. The night darkened further and the wind howled so closely to her ears that she bit her lip in fear.

It was at this point that she heard the growling, like a low rumble of snare drums before the bang of a gun. Because she couldn't sit still any longer she popped up from her crouch and peered into the darkness all around her. Ten years old, she was small and wide-eyed but still intelligent enough not to move lest she provoke whatever was out there. Her throat whimpered but nothing came from her lips. If she was to be killed, she would do it in a dignified, Discovery Channel-esque manner.

"It's okay." She heard this somewhere far off, as though it were a whisper amplified to a low, low moan. A man was speaking. Pinching her arms closer to herself, she decided to stay abruptly quiet and wait for the growling that coincided with the gentle voice to come closer. She was no longer afraid to be mauled, more, she was afraid to be caught and taken back home.

Out of the blackened trees, a snow-white man with hair bleached a very pale blond emerged with his fingers stuffed into his heavy coat pockets and his smile casual and lopsided, as though young attractive men generally took long routes through a winter nights' forest. When he spied Bella, tiny and shivering in her thin winter coat he cocked his head to the side and held out one hand to her.

From behind him, a boy popped out of the shadows and made his presence known. He was wrapped so tightly in dark black material that only his cheeks and nose remained exposed to the winter air. His lips were pursed in confusion as Carlisle halted before Bella. The scene was all so strange and confusing that Bella had to admit she'd lost her fear in a state of sudden wonder. The small boy, her size, sized her up from afar as the taller man straightened his hat.

"Well, see here!" He sighed, his voice a musical limerick that played with Bella's ears. "Are you lost?" He didn't wait for an answer. "Come with us. We can take you home."

The trust the man emenated was overwhelming, but Bella drew back. She recognized him now. He was the doctor that worked over at the big hospital that Ted took her too sometimes when she fell or had to say she'd done so in the place of something a little more revealing to her father's personal life. Carlisle Cullen was an adult and she knew him well but this didn't stop her from backing away hesitantly and eyeing the path to the river, planning her escape.

"Bella?" She cringed. Now it was certain that she'd have to go home. Carlisle raised an eyebrow in wait for her speech, then wandered close to her regardless of the way her shoulders hunched backward and her eyes clenched shut. "I'm sure that your father is very worried."

"He isn't!" Bella cried suddenly, her voice weak from exposure to the cold air.

"Dad," the red haired boy Bella knew now to be from her class, Edward, whined eagerly. His cheeks had gone red. "I'm cold. Let's go. Mom is making hot chocolate."

Carlisle kept his eyes on Bella as he responded carefully to Edward in a light, accepting tone. "You're right son. Let's get going. Bella, would you like to join us?"

She took a step back toward the cusp of the forest, sighed, and nodded eagerly. She finally took the outstretched hand that, while frozen and as white as the snow around her, seemed to comfort away all of the worries she's been harbouring.

xxx

2006

The Cullen's extravagantly large home towered before Bella as she shamefully climbed the front steps holding her belly with both arms. It was summer and the sun was hot on top of her hair that had grown a considerable amount in the past years. It just touched her waist and wreathed her in brunette locks; she would've given anything to have the guts to chop it off at the neck to relieve herself of the heat. Still, the pain in her lower abdomen was worse. With burning cheeks, she raised one thin wrist to the door and knocked with pale knuckles that had been chapped and dry from work.

Her best friend, Edward, opened the door with a huge smile on his face that tugged back to show all his teeth. Of all his family members, he was the only one who seemed to grow at all. Behind him, Esme stirred a bowl of chocolate substance that whisked lighter and lighter into a fluffy cream. Her smile was as radiant and young as it had been three years before.

"Hello Bella!" She greeted cheerily.

"Bells!" Edward cried, throwing his arms around his friend. A boy of thirteen, he was gangly, ordinary and sweet. His hair was almost always a dishellved mess of red and his green eyes constantly mischievous with intent to find his strange means of entertainment; he always had a way to make Bella laugh even through some of his more dangerous antics.

He pulled back from her slowly. "Mom and I are making-"

Esme raised a finger to her lips. Edward turned back, grimaced, and smiled again.

"Are you gonna come in?"

Bella looked from Esme to Edward with a strange fear twisting up inside of her. They had seen her through injuries explained and injuries she could never detail to them, they had been there for her through bullying and teasing and even her nightmares and deepest dreams. They were her friends and still, still, this was so hard. She clenched Edward's hand and tried not to avoid their eyes as she asked if Carlisle were home.

As if on cue, Carlisle dodged into the room in his usual casual, graceful way. He greeted her shortly with a suspicious, "What's up, Bella?"

"I, uh." She finally looked away from Edward's piercing green irises and found solace in the dirty toes of her sneakers. "My stomach..." She clenched where it hurt and sighed. "And I'm bleeding. I... it hurts. I don't know what to do."

Carlisle gave a sidelong look to Esme, who immediately passed him the bowl of chocolate and strode in front of Edward with a calm, slightly bemused look on her face.

"Come with me." She instructed, and pulled Bella along after her up the stairs and into an immaculate bathroom where she explained the monthly function that prior to that day, Bella had never understood.

Later, as Carlisle dimmed the lights in the kitchen and Esme gracefully flitted through the room with a massive chocolate cake balanced on a silver platter Bella was fully educated on the intimate details of being a woman. She was no longer concerned about the pain that gripped her so tightly she could have keeled over and cried. It was almost motherly in the way that Esme knelt down to kiss her on the cheek and wish her a very happy thirteenth birthday.

xxx

Present Day.

Edward had his hand wrapped around Bella's, his long fingers warm and comforting as a horror movie played out on the screen before them. The violent scenes were very near gruesome but Bella didn't cower with Rosalie and Alice, Edward's new sisters on the couch in the living room. Instead she watched with a less-than-fascinated disinterest. It was as though after seeing a real monster first hand she was disensitized to the drama.

Bored with this realism, she turned to look down at Edward's hand on hers. It had been blossoming between them for a long time now and still stirred her at night when she woke up hot and confused and wished he was there with her. She was convinced that he was right when he said he couldn't imagine his life without her. She knew that things were better when he was around.

He caught her looking and, despite the nudges shared between his brother's Emmett and Jasper, looked her in the eye with a smirk that made her heart leap in a way horror movies would never inspire. He beckoned her forth with nothing but a shared link, a thought that they could both find comfort in.

She could feel his heart beating, it was so close to hers.

He had less than a day to live.


	2. Chapter 2

It started on the day that Bella didn't show up for school and gradually escalated thereupon that point. She'd been up too late- doing a project as recalled, one that she owed a great deal of time and had presently only spent a few measly hours on- and Ted had seen her light glowing from beneath the door. In a rage, he'd swept into her room, knocked over the desk and Bella along with it. She'd woken up the next morning not knowing where she was for a good few hours until she saw herself in the mirror, checked the gash in the middle of her forhead and realized that even after the desk had fallen onto her skull Ted had remained kicking at her until he himself had passed out. He was halfway in the hallway and halfway out of her room.

Edward called her as soon as he'd hit home after school, and hours after Bella had showered away most of her aches and pains and dressed in her usual conservative attire: "Bella, why didn't you show up today?" He sounded nervous, as though anticipating the worst news. As far as he knew his bestfriend never skipped school. "Are you sick?"

"Oh, Um," She took one anxious glance at Ted passed out and the mess much like a tornado's ruins surrounding him, then continued with an elaborate lie. "I tripped on something last night and hurt my head. I guess I just slept all day, you know?"

Edward knew she was clumsy and, mistaking her indifference for a desperate attempt at shifted attention, pressed on. "You hit your head?" In the background, Bella heard Carlisle emerge and begin murmuring directions to Edward. "Bella, dad says you should come over and let him take a look at it." There was a definite pause, then, "He says that you could have a concussion and he- Dad, I know, I know. Okay."

"Edward?" Bella squeaked. Ted had shifted in his sleep, grumbled and repositioned himself on the floor sending a blossom of heated fear to errupt in her chest.

"He says come over right away, unless you want him to come get you."

Ted grumbled again.

"Yeah, sure. I'll be over in a sec." With that, Bella snapped her phone shut and replaced it on the dresser that somehow had remained unscathed from the night before. With a flash she had overturned the desk, scooped up as many armfuls of debris as she could and cleared the storm area. Ted slept on, twitching responsively to his dreams. As quietly as she could afterward, she stole from the house. She knew better than to try to move him and furthermore wished to exit the house before he woke up and stopped her.

It took more than a little while to hitch hike to Edward's house, but eventually someone picked her up and dropped her off down the road from the towering mansion in which her friend lived. As she scrambled out of the old woman's convertible and onto the gravel road a puff of dust enveloped her lungs. Coughing, she made her way down the tree-lined stretch of dirt and rock pieces, eager to see Edward's face though she held no idea of what he would say to hers.

When Alice opened the door she recoiled, then caught herself on the verge of a startled cry and turned her red lips upward into a smile. Her thin hands found Bella's shoulders and pulled her indoors gently. Esme appeared, softly shutting the front door behind her.

"How are you, Bella?" Alice asked in her usual perky manner. Her sweet voice licked Bella's wounds and made her feel lively. Carefully, Bella touched the gash on her head.

"It hurts a little." Alice didn't need to ask- Bella could see her staring, fixated on the fresh wound. A look of pain flitted across Alice's face, her nose twitching as though she smelled something delicious.

"Alice." Esme sharply interuppted the brief moment of strange pleasure that Bella caught on Alice's face. Alice struck back, took a jump away from Bella and smiled again.

"Edward is-" She shook her head then upon Esme's strange glances. "Come with us. Carlisle will take a look at it."

"Oh-" Bella bit her lip, trying to make up something in the heat of the moment but she was all out of excuses for the day. It would only take a little while for Carlisle to poke her, prod her, examine her wounds and declare what was to be done. This time it took little more than ten minutes.

"Good as new!" Carlisle exclaimed as he finished up with his reconstructive touches and applications to the cut. "Stay out of trouble," He added carefully as Bella hopped down from his in-home patient seat, and gave her an earnest, honest look that dug into her skin.

"I'll try." She nodded.

Edward was waiting outside, his hair in a mess and his head against the wall as he leaned back. His eyes were closed and so Bella had a fleeting moment to take in his tallness, his sweet smile, the square jaw that seemed to play up his smirk and make it irresistable. His muscles were lean and hard but he was by no means a thickset boy; he was no more skinny than he was fat, his shoulders broad and his face kind. He was a boy caught in the middle of being a man. Bella thought that he couldn't be any more good looking than he already was.

Of course, this didn't help her in the way that she felt about herself and her chances of ever belonging to someone as loving and handsome as her best friend. Edward had seen her grow as well, but he had seen her gawky changes, her clumsy upbringing, her strange haircuts, her awful weight problems as she grew and her chest developed, her hips spilling outward. He had seen her limbs take flight and become disproportioned. Now that she was fully grown she was sure he could never see her for what she was but for how she had been.

He snapped his eyes open, a look of horror flashing across his face when he saw the gash on her forhead.

"You fell?" the words were faint whispers. Edward was not a stupid boy; for a while he had been doubting Bella's excuses and quick-thinking, the way her eyes lit up when she wasn't sure of herself, the way she trembled in her sleep when they had Saturday movie nights. He'd heard her fearful tone on the phone, and had once discovered Ted's anger when he'd called too late in the night. Now, the words came out of his mouth like a second hand lie. Bella nodded curtly.

Edward stepped forward and placed one finger on the deep indent, the red line that seemed to throb with its surrounding bruise. Casually, he leaned and pressed his lips softly to the red stain in her skin.

When he pulled back Bella's eyes were wide. It clicked in him that this day was a special day, a day where all truth would be brought to the table. He himself could no longer restrain what news he felt he owed to Bella; he loved her, and he was going to tell her. Just as he supposed she would tell him if she knew how he cared. The plan came to him as most plans do for a teenage boy- without warning, in a sudden.

"Come on," He grabbed her hand eagerly and began to pull her down the stairs, out the door, to the car he sometimes borrowed from Emmett. The sporty little two-seater was perfect for what he had in mind. Bella opened the passenger door as though in a dream, occasionally glancing up at Edward in confusion. As far as she was concerned most of their hangouts involved staying indoors, talking until the sun rose, sharing jokes and stories and creating inventive new foods. They almost never went outside- it was somewhat of a traditon for them to repel the rest of the world.

As they roared down the road, Edward barely acknowledging the speedometer, the tension built up between them. He had hoped that they would make it to the cliffs where the Quilette boys sometimes leapt into the deep, dark churning water- they never would, of course, reach it to this destined point. He didn't know that in those few moments before everything changed. Bella was shifting in the passenger seat and looking uncomfortable and Edward couldn't help but initiate conversation then and there if only to cut the ice that had formulated.

"Bella," He took her hand, stroking the soft skin with the pads of his fingers. Each innocent rub sent a flicker of warmth into Bella's heart. All at once, he knew exactly what to say. It flooded from him with ease: "We've been friends for so long and next year is our very last year of high school. Before we have to go our seperate ways I want the truth to be out. I couldn't imagine leaving without first reviewing our options. I can't leave without knowing what could have been..."

"Better." Bella cut him off. Unfortunately at this point she had only the idea in her head that Edward was trying to get her to confess. After years of carefully evading his questions and concerns, she thought, it's come to this. She was going to have to tell him. A strange pain filled her chest and expanded, spreading throughout her as she gasped for the breath to continue.

Edward smiled. "Right! Better. Not that what we have isn't special, but I think if we both just admitted how we feel about the situation..."

"It doesn't bother you?" Bella hopefully squeaked, fiddling with her seatbelt and staring with intense concentration out the window.

"Of course not!" Edward's eyebrows shot upward. "What would make you think-"

"I just..." Bella cut him off, whipping around with a sudden flash of confidence. "I didn't know what you would do, but if you're cool with it then I guess I can tell you..."

"Oh, Bella, did you think I'd reject you?" Edwards playful smile had turned into one of deep appreciation, his eyes becoming green pools of admiration.

"I didn't know!" Bella blurted, tears creeping out of the corners of her eyes. The relief was unimaginable, the feeling of hope and trust in her friend crusading into her usual meek stance. If he hadn't have been driving she would have thrown her arms around her caring, wonderful best friend and kissed him.

"Well, now you do." Edward sighed, eyeing the road carefully as the car accelerated. "So I think it's safe to say..."

"I can tell you now, that-"

"It's going to be so easy to..."

"Edward, Ted has been abusing me for years!" Bella slapped one hand over her mouth, bit down and sobbed. It was out- finally, it was out. For all the relief she felt, it seemed that she were the only one in comprehension- Edward had stopped talking at once, his eyebrows knotting together.

Bella looked over as the silence thickened and the seconds crawled by.

He had gone rigid, his body transformed into unmoveable stone. His lips hung open and his eyes helplessly grazed her with first misunderstanding, then recognition, and finally, absolute horror.

"You... Ted has... what?" The words were strangled and gnarled, squeezed out of his throat with harsh difficulty.

"Edward?"

He gripped the wheel tightly- all those suspicions, confirmed. Years of not understanding, of never knowing, of wondering, of lies. At once he felt ready to murder as his foot pressed down hard on the gas.

"Edward!" It was the second warning from Bella that he'd missed and far too late for him to do anything about it.

Their car slammed into the oncoming van with such force that Edward disappeared through an explosion of glass. Bella's seatbelt cut into her neck as it seized her back into the seat, breaking her circulation and sending her into a bewildered black-out. As her eyes shut, she scanned wildly but Edward was no where to be seen.


End file.
